UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON ARCHIVES
ORAL HISTORY PROJECT

Interview #740
GOLDBERG, MICHAEL

GOLDBERG, Michael (1943- ) 
Emeritus Director, Wisconsin Union Theater
At UW: 1960-1964, 1967-1973, 1976-2003

Interviewed: 2005-2006	
Interviewer: Robert Lange
Length: 7 hours, 10 minuets 

Growing up in the Bronx; Undergraduate study at UW-Madison; Wisconsin Union Theater; Helen C. White; Work as a stagehand; Peace Corps; Campus protest; Films; Career at the Union Theater; Service functions of the Union; Student leadership; African American artists; Chamber music; Arts departments; Arts Consortium; Future of the arts. 

First Interview Session (December 30, 2005): Tapes 1-3

Tape 1/Side 1

00:00:30	Michael Goldberg was born in 1943 in the Bronx.  He talks about some of his prominent classmates at Bronx Science High School.

00:02:50	He talks about his parents.

00:04:05	MG graduated from high school at age 16 and came to the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1960.  He discusses the decision to attend UW.

00:07:00	First visit to Madison.

00:08:35	MG was the first person in his family to go to college.

00:09:45	Living in Adams Hall.

00:11:15	Education at Bronx Science.

00:12:30	MG initially majored in applied math and physics at UW.

00:13:05	He describes his freshman roommate.

00:15:40	Origin of his involvement in the Union Theater was in helping pack up the set of Our Town.  Engagement in social life with other stage hands.  MG describes some of these people.

00:31:20	End of side.

Tape 1/Side 2

00:31:25	Michael Goldberg talks about seeing an opera and describes his self-education in classical music from LP jacket liners.	

00:38:20	By his sophomore year at UW, MG decided to major in English.  He describes his English professors, including Helen C. White.

00:46:00	MG describes his English curriculum.

00:47:30	He talks about his acting role in a production of Cyrano de Bergerac at the Union Theater.  MG also speaks more generally about his experience with the Union Theater as an undergraduate.

00:54:50	MG continues to talk about the history of the Wisconsin Union Theater.

01:02:48	End of side.  End of tape.

Tape 2/Side 1

01:03:10	Michael Goldberg talks about the prominence of the university in the local arts community.

00:04:50	Difficulty of the wider community gaining admission into the Wisconsin Union Theater.

01:06:00	High profile of artists brought to the Union Theater.

01:07:25	MG was a regular stagehand for the Wisconsin Players’ productions. 

01:10:40	He describes one of his mentors, Fred Buerki.

01:30:20	MG graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1964.  He joined the Peace Corps and went to Ethiopia from 1964-66.

01:32:30	He met his wife while writing reviews for the Daily Cardinal.

01:34:05	End of side.

Tape 2/Side 2

01:34:15	Michael Goldberg continues to discuss his work for the Daily Cardinal. 

01:35:00	He taught English in Ethiopia while in the Peace Corps.

01:37:25	He returned to Madison for graduate study in theater.

01:38:30	MG describes the protest atmosphere on campus.

01:39:10	He talks about his graduate education.  He worked in the Union Theater during 1967-68 but never completed his graduate degree.

01:40:45	He describes the “war zone” on campus in the late 1960s.  He participated in many protest marches.

01:45:50	MG explains why he didn’t complete his graduate degree.

01:47:45	He describes the general experience of living in the political climate of the late 1960s.

01:48:50	In the fall of 1968 MG went to work as a film advisor for Bill Dawson, the head of the Union Theater.

01:49:25	He talks about Porter Butts’ insistence on having student leadership at the Wisconsin Union.

01:52:20	Popularity of film in the late 1960s.  Screenings at the Play Circle and other Madison locations.

01:58:00	He talks about student participation in the management of the Union Theater.

02:04:30	End of side.  End of tape.

Tape 3/Side 1

02:04:55	Michael Goldberg continues to describe student leadership in the Wisconsin Union Theater.

02:07:20	He talks about radical theater and a nude performance of Peter Pan.

02:28:10	MG briefly describes the course of his career.  He left Madison for the East Coast. 

02:28:50	Fan Taylor and the Arts Presenters Association.

02:34:50	MG became a projectionist in the play circle in 1970-71 at the Wisconsin Union Theater.  Thereafter he worked for the Association.

02:36:05	End of side.

Second Interview Session (February 22, 2006): Tapes 3-4

Tape 3/Side 2

00:00:30	Michael Goldberg describes his career in the Wisconsin Union Theater.  He began as a stage hand before working on the program staff responsible for film programming.  He also provided administrative support for the director, Bill Dawson.  He returned to Madison later at the invitation of Fan Taylor to work on a project for the Arts Presenters Association.  While waiting for funding to come through for this project he worked as a projectionist in the Union Theater.

00:02:15	He conducted a one-year study in a dozen states to address classical music and recital programming in university environments, and opportunities to develop and expand these programs and their audiences.  This project enabled MG to travel through the US.

00:05:00	The study found that visiting guest artists could be replaced by half- or full-week residency engagements with activities leading up to the concert.

00:06:10	A further grant funded a project designed to implement these findings.

00:07:00	Dawson aggressively pursued artist-in-residency programs at the Union Theater.

00:09:55	In late 1973 MG went to New York to work for a service organization.  He talks about the development of arts administrator programs.

00:14:00	From New York he went to California.  He declined a job offer from Western Opera Theater and opted to return to Madison.

00:17:05	He worked as a taxi driver in Madison.  He was also the manager of the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra.

00:18:15	He met his wife in 1976.

00:19:05	MG had a Thursday afternoon classical music program on WORT.

00:19:35	He also directed some opera programs in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

00:20:15	Fan Taylor was at that time working for the university as the first director of the Arts Consortium.

00:22:10	In late 1977 Ralph Sandler hired MG to replace him at the Union Theater.  MG picked up on the travel adventure series.

00:23:00	He became interim program director of the Wisconsin Union Theater in 1979.  He became director of the Union Theater in 1983.

00:27:30	End of side.  End of tape.

Tape 4/Side 1

00:27:50	Michael Goldberg talks about the Wisconsin Union Theater in the context of the university and the Wisconsin Union.

00:28:30	He describes an open house on the theater stage in January 2003 at the time of his departure.

00:31:00	MG describes the service side of the Union Theater.  At some point, everyone at the university wants to use the Union Theater.  Therefore they are very dependent on the theater staff to make their productions and performances successful.

00:36:00	Visits of politicians are difficult to handle.

00:39:00	One of the pleasures of working at the theater is seeing the variety of acts and audiences that come in during the course of a week.

00:41:10	He tried to attend most evening programs.

00:43:05	The design of the theater made it efficient and adaptable for many different types of productions.

00:48:15	The Union Theater was being used on 300+ days per year, often with multiple uses per day.

00:48:45	National reputation of the theater.

00:49:20	MG describes the architect of the Union Theater and some of the theater’s unique architectural features.  

00:52:25	Lighting controls in the theater.

00:56:30	Porter Butts said that the Union is a division of social education.  This was an ongoing mission for all those who worked for the theater.

00:58:50	End of side.

Tape 4/Side 2

00:59:05	Michael Goldberg discusses the professionalism of the theater.

01:00:00	He talks about student leadership in the Union Theater and the Program Planning Committee.

01:01:30	Program seasons did not fit exactly with incoming students who would produce.  Thus it was a challenge for all directors of the theater to balance wise programming with student choice and leadership.

01:04:25	Program directorate selection process.

01:07:35	MG thinks working with students was simultaneously the best and the worst part of his job.

01:12:05	He describes some controversial incidents in which students had the authority to decide.

01:16:45	Budget of the Union Theater.

01:22:10	Student attendance at the Union Theater diminished greatly through the 1980s and 1990s as ideas about culture changed.

01:23:40	Theater’s commitment to maximizing programmers in the programming process.

01:25:00	MG brought student programmers to the booking conference.  He talks about the quality of his student programmers.  Five black students and two Asian students served as directors during his twenty-three years with the Union Theater.

01:30:00	End of side.  End of tape.

Third Interview Session (April 25, 2006): Tapes 5-6

Tape 5/Side 1

00:00:20	Michael Goldberg continues to discuss students as programmers at the Wisconsin Union Theater.

01:09:30	The theater was created to make a home for the concert series and for the theater productions of the Wisconsin Players, the producing arm of the speech department.

00:10:30	He talks about the role of the speech department in the theater in the 1960s.

00:11:50	MG relates a story about Fan Taylor.

00:13:00	He describes why the Wisconsin Players left the Union Theater in the early 1970s.

00:31:15	End of side.

Tape 5/Side 2

00:31:15	The Wisconsin Union Theater offered the theatre and drama department space when it returned in the late 1970s.  Michael Goldberg speaks about relations between the department and the Union Theater.

00:35:40	He relates a story about the Lorraine Hansberry, who recounted in her autobiography a transformative event when she watched a performance in the Wisconsin Union Theater.  Robert Lange was able to use this instance and a program from the event to help raise funds from her estate.

00:43:00	MG tells another story about the discovery of a student play by a woman who had been an undergraduate in the speech department in the 1940s.  A play writing competition was set up in her name.  She has agreed to an estate gift to bring to campus a playwright whose work would be produced by the department of theatre and drama.

00:55:00	Story about appearance of Paul Robeson at the Union Theater.

01:02:00	End of side.  End of tape.

Tape 6/Side 1

01:02:05	Michael Goldberg describes files kept on African American artists at the Union Theater.  He talks about some of these artists.  

01:04:50	The Union Theater hosted all the best artists.

01:10:00	MG comments on the success of the Union Theater as a learning laboratory.

01:15:30	He talks again about Paul Robeson and a play about him that was performed at the Union Theater.

Fourth Interview Session (May 16, 2006): Tapes 6-8

Tape 6/Side 1, continued

00:00:20	MG recollects his favorite memories of the Union Theater.  

00:4:20	Chamber music.

00:11:35	End of side.

Tape 6/Side 2

00:11:40	Michael Goldberg continues to discuss his favorite Union Theater memories.

00:12:50	Series of complete Beethoven string quartets.

00:15:10	Attempts to interface School of Music faculty with the concert series.

00:16:40	More on the Beethoven string quartets.

00:22:00	MG talks about some chamber music concert leaders.

00:25:00	He misses chamber music the most.

00:29:50	MG tells a story about the time he saved the Union Theater from burning down.

00:34:20	He considers his work at the Union Theater a privilege.

00:38:45	End of side.  End of tape.

Tape 7/Side 1

00:39:20	Michael Goldberg talks about the faculty in arts departments on the UW campus.

00:44:05	Visual arts and School of Music.

00:49:10	Carlos Moser and the opera program.

00:53:00	MG describes the School of Music in the 1970s and 1980s.  Role of L&S Dean E. David Cronon.

01:07:20	Arts Consortium.

01:10:10	End of side.

Tape 7/Side 2

01:10:40	Michael Goldberg continues to discuss the origins of the Arts Consortium.

01:15:00	Tino Balio and the Arts Consortium.

01:17:00	MG evaluates the success of the Consortium’s emphasis on residencies.

01:18:30	Curriculum changes enabled students to study topics across colleges.

01:22:30	He talks about arts awards, grants, and fellowships.

01:25:50	Demands placed on arts faculty to be creative in addition to their teaching responsibilities.

01:27:05	Fan Taylor and the Consortium.

01:30:05	MG speculates on the future of the arts at UW-Madison.

01:32:30	He thinks that the UW System was created at the expense of the Madison campus.

01:34:50	MG considers Chancellor John Wiley the best chancellor under whom he has worked.  His support for the arts.

01:41:25	End of side.  End of tape.

Tape 8/Side 1

01:41:35	Michael Goldberg talks about support for physical facilities for the arts.

01:43:45	Poor facilities in Vilas Hall have handicapped the Department of Theatre and Drama.

01:46:10	He talks again about the prospects for the arts and the School of Music in the future.

01:48:00	MG reflects on his career at UW.

01:52:17	End of interview.

END